The UN-backed Presidential Council’s problems are festering as leaked list of new appointed ambassadors reveals corruption and nepotism at the head of the new Libyan leadership tasked to reconstruct the country following the death of former strongman Muammar Gaddafi. Read More
Taking advantage of the weakness and divisions of the EU, and the lack of interest of the US, Russia “plays games for fun” in Libya, expending little effort, but potentially obtaining important dividends, analysts said at an event in Brussels on Wednesday (26 April). Read More
By Abdullah Ben Ibrahim
A former Gaddafi officer, suspected of having links to the shooting of British police officer WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in 1984, has been picked to head the Libyan Intelligence Agency. Read More
By Khalil-Al-Anani
We cannot begin to understand the disintegration and fragmentation plaguing the Arab region without looking at the failures of the nation states that were established on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire following its destruction a hundred years or so ago. Read More
By Imad K. Harb
Observers and analysts consider good governance to be among the top most priorities in the Arab world. Read More
The International Criminal Court (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber I unseals a warrant of arrest for Al-Tuhamy Mohamed Khaled charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity Read More
By Heba Saleh and Andrew England
The internationally recognised head of Libya’s $67bn sovereign wealth fund is to appeal to the UN in an attempt to allow the fund to manage its frozen assets, despite the violent political rivalries plaguing state institutions. Read More
Rome agreement could see Libya’s warring sides meet to broker peace after more than a year of conflict and chaos on the ground. Read More
The chaos that has crippled Libya since 2011 is not resolving itself quickly enough to prevent widespread hunger and privation throughout the country. Read More
Libya faces an ever-worsening currency and liquidity crisis which cannot be surmounted without a stable political solution that definitively concludes the struggle for power and legitimacy ongoing since 2014.Yet, the root of the crisis lies not in politics but in the deepening distrust toward Libya’s public financial system as a whole. Read More
By Richard Lobban
Strategic thinking focuses on historical trends, the balance of forces, national and economic interests, ideology, naval choke points, diplomacy, information and the military capacity of friends and foes. Read More
By Elissa Miller
The situation in Libya seems to be simultaneously stalemated and wavering on the brink of collapse. Read More
By Mohammed Deghayes
Rocked by war since popular protests toppled long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya isn’t top of people’s holiday destinations anymore. However, this vast country is home to five world heritage sites and venturing into the gate to the Sahara once took you through a time warp into a history of civilisation. Read More
By Danya Hajjaji
At an art exhibit in Tripoli, artists displayed haunting works related to their personal experiences in the post-revolution conflicts in Libya and the entire region. Read More
By Mustafa Fetouri
In their final communique at the end of their two-day meeting in Italy on April 10, the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven yet again expressed their unequivocal support of the Libyan political agreement and its transitional government headed by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, Read More
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he does not believe the American military should have a direct role in helping stabilize war-ravaged Libya, where violence and political instability has reigned since the overthrow of the country’s dictator. Read More
By Michael Mpeirwe Katungi
With the intervention of NATO and its allies and the killing of Muamar Gaddaffi, Libya which used to host thousands of migrants from sub-Sahara Africa has degenerated so much that it has become a slave market. Read More
It is more important than ever to forge unity within Libya, the United Nations envoy for the country told the Security Council, Read More
By Patrick Haimzadeh
The Government of National Accord set up last year under pressure from the West only worsened the country’s fragmentation. Yet the present stand-off should teach the international community to be more in tune with the local political culture and to set in motion a virtuous circle from the bottom up. Read More
On April 11, 2017, the Arab Center Washington DC (ACW) released the findings of the 2016 Arab Opinion Index, a large-scale annual research initiative undertaken by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACPRS) in Doha, Qatar. Read More
By Khalid Mahmoud
Leader of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Marshal Khalifa Haftar has once again rejected calls made by Libyan Prime Minister of Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez al-Sarraj to end military operations to liberate the South of armed militias, instead assigning a commander for the southern military area. Read More
By Monika Donimirska
Through diplomatic action and concrete support, the EU is assisting Libya’s transition towards a stable, functioning country and is supporting UN mediation efforts in this regard. Read More
Plagued by war, violence, and low oil prices, economies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will see growth of 2.6 percent in 2017, down from 3.5 percent in 2016, according to the World Bank’s semi-annual MENA Economic Monitor launched on April 17 on the sidelines of the Arab Monetary Fund. Read More
By: Abdelkader Assad
At the very hour the Libyan 40-year+ ruler Moamar Gaddafi died, Libyans had a very wide grin on their faces. Those in the field, the men and women in the houses, children, and the elderly all had the thought that their country will be greater in time, at least on the economic level. Read More
by Joel Gehrke
President Trump’s team needs to take care to prevent Libya from falling under the sway of Russia, according to U.S. policymakers and experts. Read More
By Lorenzo Kamel
About 500 million people live in the Middle East and North Africa, two-thirds of whom are under the age of 30. In about three decades, according to a number of estimates, their number will double. Read More
By Moki Edwin Kindzeka
The Italian coast guard says it has rescued nearly 6,000 migrants on the Mediterranean since Friday, underscoring the continued flow of people along this dangerous route. Read More
By Toby Vogel
As a failed state in the European Union’s immediate neighbourhood that serves as a base camp for terrorists and a conduit for irregular migration to Europe, Libya is precisely the kind of place for which the EU’s foreign policy instruments were designed, or so one might think. Read More
By Larry Cohler-Esses
Sebastian Gorka, President Trump’s top counter-terrorism adviser, is once again facing disdain from Middle East experts—this time over a reported plan he advanced to partition Libya. Read More
By Jason Lemon
We talked with Hend about her online commentary and who she is outside of the virtual world. She’s been dubbed the “Queen of Muslim Twitter,” but insists it’s not true at all. Read More
By Robert F. Worth
In the early summer of 2003, a few months after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, I arrived at the door of a pockmarked building in Baghdad where many of the military and intelligence files of Saddam Hussein’s government were stored. Read More
Libya’s southern desert, long neglected by central authorities, risks becoming an arena for score-settling between rival governments vying for clout across the war-torn country, analysts say. Read More
Libya has become a vortex of human suffering, sucking in thousands of desperate migrants. Read More
By Mattia Toaldo
A Trump aide’s plan to partition Libya should be replaced with a more honest conversation about decentralisation and economic power-sharing. Read More
By S.M. Carlson
Libya is a mess and the internal fighting between the three warring governments and their respective militia forces is once again escalating. Read More
The Middle East accounts for three of the top five executors in the world, a new report from Amnesty revealed on Tuesday. Read More